Mountain Lion, AKA-- Cougar,Puma, in Florida the species is known as Panther, (Mountain lions have been hunted almost to extinction in the eastern U.S. The Florida panther is an endangered species). The Mountain Lion/Cougar is found mostly in the Western United States. Habitat is slowly being destroyed by urbanization. Mountain lions have greatly diminished in number because they have been bounty hunted (for sport, for their pelts, or to protect livestock), and because they have lost habitat large enough to support them. They are an important predator at the top of the food chain, focusing on deer and elk and thereby helping to keep these populations healthy and habitat from being overgrazed. But the more specialized a species, the less adaptable it is to change, and the cougar has proven relatively unable to adapt to habitat loss and competition with humans for large ungulate prey. Mountain lions are now a protected species throughout the United States.